Job Discussion Forums

[spiral78]

What exactly was the language learning point of the OP's lesson on the topic of censorship? "Employing critical thinking skills' isn't actually EFL.

[Bud Powell]

Spiral,

In the states, the term "critical thinking" has come to be regarded as a form of indoctrination (by actual critical thinkers). A lot has been written about it lately:

http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/ethics-without-indoctrination/494

This essay is much less academic in tone, but it gets to the heart of it:

http://theconversation.com/lets-stop-trying-to-teach-students-critical-thinking-30321

A particularly pertinent point from the second essay is this:

"...When teachers talk about the need to be “critical” they often mean instead that students must “conform”. It is often actually teaching students to be 'critical' of their unacceptable ideas and adopt the right ones..."

First-year American college students are hit with that quite often.

[Bud Powell]

[spiral78]

Hi, Bud

Yes, at my European university we are occasionally faced with a graduate of the current US university system, and another faculty hosts about 100 exchange students from the US every semester. I'm unfortunately aware of quite a lot of the range of idiocy going on there in recent years.

But still wondering what the language learning point of the OP's lesson plan was.